The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-09
THE sAL0o1PowER
BY REV. s. ID sr, D. D.
(Gslesbu1 III

The saloon is the deadly foe of all
true social economy. MANY of our So
cial questions, would be answered and
our social troubles Hmoved, if there
was an end to the saloon. The power
ty of the working &lasses would be
greatly mitigated ifsthere was no sa-
loon to absorb their @ernings. Many a
laboring man would u well to do, if he
only had the money he has spent at the
saloon. In the econ@<hic world the sa-
loon is the bottomle1s pit. Whatever
goes into that hole ID I0st forever ! No
man ever sees it agAfb 1t is a per
manent investment tat returns no in
come. The saloon n<ver creates dol
lar of wealth, but iaonly means of
destroying wealth. ~ satisfies no hu
man desire-all the degires it satisfies
are inhuman, and it helps men not to
live, but to die. It btrns up the pro-
duct and murders theproducer. When
man earns a dollar ind puts it into
good wholesome f0o4, he is not only
comfortable and hapIF, but he is ready
to earn another dollaTs He has convert
ed it into bone and muscle and is pre-
pared to sell his labor FOR more money.
But if he spends it a6 the saloon, what
then? The saloon keeper has his mon
ey, but what has be in place of it
Nothing worse than nothing
If the saloon had only taken his money
and turned him out of doors without
drop he would have been vastly better
off, for he has not only lost his money,
but he has received wretchedness and
woe and weakness Of every kind. He
is far less able to earn another dollar,
and, if he follows upspending his mon
ey at the saloon, he will soon be unable
to earn anything. Every dollar that a
community puts into q saloon is worse
than wasted. The seed sown comes
back not in kind, but In a terrible har-
vest of transgression and woe. Four
fifths Of all our crime and poverty are
traceable to the saloon. If it were not
for the saloon and tswork, we should
hardly need an almshouse, criminal
court, or police force.
Not only so, but a saloon reduces the
value of all property in its neighbor-
hood. No one wants to live. do busi-
ness, or own property near a saloon.
Our Mayor says tssat the saloons on his
streethavefeauced zsueef s4segz
erty from $40, 900 to $6,000 l would
advise him to get up petition to have
them excluded. Most of us who have
to come by them every Sunday to church
would sign.
know it is said that it pays large
revenue to the State. The city treas
ury is greatly enriched by the income
from saloon licenses. Now 1 believe
in taxing the saloon. Just so long as
we have the saloon l believe in taxing
it. would tax it within an inch of its
life. Yes, | would tax it as much as
two inches after death. l would show
it the virtue of post 'nortem retribution.
If there is class of men who are bound
to have the saloon, then would make
them pay for all the mischief that the
saloon causes. 1 wouldnot saddle that
burden upon the good people of the COM
munity. l would not tax other trades
TO support the saloon. That the saloon
is not self-sustaining is the clearest of
ali facts. 1t costs more than it comes
to. One of our aldermen assures us that
every thousand dollars we get out of
the saloon costs us two thousand. This
is without doubt far below the truth.
Though our license is high, yet if we
would estimate in dollars all that the
saloons cost us in crime, pauperism and
all sorts of wretchedness, we should
find that the saloon cost far more than
twice as much as we get out of it.
Nothing can be claimed, therefore, for
it on the ground of revenue. The city
is constant loser by its existence.
1t is hardly necessary to speak of its
influence in the political world. Here,
like everywhere else, it is all bad. More
than hundred years ago, John Adams
pointed out the political evils of the
dramshop. 1.-THE worst effect of all, +"
he said, land which ought to make
every man who has the least sense Of
privileges, tremble, these houses are be-
come in many places the nurseries of
our legislatures An artful man, who
has neither sense nor sentiment, may,
by gaining little sway among the rab
BILE of town, multiply tayerns and
dramshops, and thereby secure the
votes of taverner and retailer and of all,
and the multiplication Of taverns will
make many, who may be induced by flip
and rum, to vote for any man whatever. :"
These words were no more true in his
day than they are in ours. In fact they
are a very mild statement of the cor
rupting political influence of the sa-
loon in our day. The saloon with us is
a political institution. 1t is organized
for work. 1t has large following,
bound to it by the ties Of appetite and
intATest In Whatayar community IL